JAPANESE BLOCKADE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 August 1941, Page 5

JAPANESE BLOCKADE

OF BRITISH CONCESSIONS IN CHINA REPRISAL FOR ECONOMIC ACTION. VAGUE TALK BY TOKIO SPOKESMAN. LONDON, August 5. The Japanese are blockading British concessions in China, according to reports from Hong Kong and Shanghai. From a pontoon moored off Shameen Japanese officers examined all vessels approaching and leaving the British concession. The Japanese in Shanghai describe the blockade move as a reprisal for the British economic measures against Japan. Mr Ishii, the spokesman of the Cabinet Information Board, announced that Japanese shipping services to America have been suspended indefinitely pending the settlement of the Tatuta Marti cargo case, after which the resumption of shipping will depend on whether it is commercially profitable. He declined to comment on the Rus-sian-American trade pact, because he said: “Japan did not want to interfere with American policy.” Japan, he said, was not optimistic with regard to the future of trade with America, but did not desire the total termination of trade. The cargo of the Tatuta Maru is now the subject of legal acti.cn in the United States and had to be discharged before the ship was permitted to sail.

SPORADIC FIGHTING ON SOVIET-JAPANESE BORDER. SHANGHAI, August 6. Military intelligence reports have confirmed the occurrence of sporadic fighting on the Soviet-Manchukuan border during the past three weeks. The most serious clash was last week when foreigners say numerous Japanese casualties were arriving at Harbin. Aoparently the Russians are adopting their old tactics of sending patrols of between 300 and 400 men across the border in an effort to capture Japanese officers and so obtain military information useful in the event of a crisis. REPORT DENIED NO BRITISH NAVAL SQUADRON IN GULF OF SIAM. (Received This Day, 9.45 a.m.) NEW YORK, August 6. The Associated Press of America s Bangkok correspondent says a high Siamese authority denied the reports that a British naval squadron is cruising in the Gulf of Siam.